I asked my Substack subscribers whether they’d be interested in supporting a COVID supplement to The Book of Waking Up. Yes, they said, but many found themselves unable to “support” the project in these uncertain financial times. So, I’m ripping out the supplement here over the next few weeks for free. If you’d like to support this project, signup for my Substack.

1. Waking to a Pandemic

March 24, 2020

My work materials are strewn across the farm table—stacks of paper, two computers, a red well, several pens, a journal, an extra rosary. The sacred table, the place for family dinner and dominoes and conversation, has become my office. For how long? Who can say? The word indefinitely haunts.

I’m writing from Arkansas to those of you in New York or Los Angeles or London or Cape Town. More to the point, I’m writing from a global state of emergency. I’m writing in the age of the New Demon, COVID-19.

This New Demon—what of its origins? Science claims it was the product of natural evolution, that it sprang from the cesspool of some common market and was passed from patron to patron. Conspiracy theorist intimate it was the creation of military biologists in secret bunkers who were hell-bent on controlling the earth’s population boom. Faith fundamentalists of all stripes claim it came from the bowl of God’s wrath, that it was poured out to wake humankind from a decadent orgy. Folks in Rome and New York and Louisiana and wherever the New Demon has taken up residence understand the more nuanced origins of COVID-19: This New Demon came from the belly of hell.

I shall not recount the spread of the New Demon, because by now, that information is available on any number of news services, both mainstream and auxiliary. What I shall recount is this: When the New Demon came hunting, he found us unprepared. He found us asleep. How do I know? So many of you have said as much.

To Be Continued…

Join me tomorrow (and for the foreseeable future) as I continue my Pandemic Supplement to The Book of Waking Up. And if you haven’t grabbed a copy of The Book of Waking Up: Experiencing the Divine Love that Reorders a Life, grab a copy. And yes, Amazon has slowed down book shipments, so considering purchasing it from Bookish, Fort Smith or grabbing a digital copy for Kindle or Nook.